


If I Live to See the Seven Wonders

by Eleutherios



Category: American Horror Story, American Horror Story: Coven
Genre: Fix Fic, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-05-04
Updated: 2014-05-04
Packaged: 2018-01-21 21:19:11
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,063
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1564457
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Eleutherios/pseuds/Eleutherios





	If I Live to See the Seven Wonders

It begins in the downstairs drawing room.  One of the students, Elizabeth Chen, is clairvoyant, and she swears she can hear music, even when the academy is empty (which is a rare occurrence these days, what with eight girls to a room).  She begins humming the tune absentmindedly while doing chores, or in lessons, or walking to her favourite cafe.  She doesn’t recognise it, though.  One of the other girls, Mary Harmon, tells her it’s “Seven Wonders” by Fleetwood Mac.  Mary’s pretty, or would be, if she made an effort.  Elizabeth isn’t vain but she takes care of herself; Mary sometimes forgets to brush her hair for days on end and wears such odd combinations of clothes that most people think it’s deliberate.  The truth is that she doesn’t really care.  Elizabeth wishes she could be like Mary sometimes.  Mary doesn’t care what people think of her; she doesn’t listen to the girls who giggle about her strange clothes and abrupt manner behind their hands.  She can heal minor sicknesses with a glance and mend broken bones with a touch; Elizabeth, who too often knows that others are in pain, would do anything to be able to help people like that.

After a while, Elizabeth begins hearing the song in her room, or in the hallways.  It’s always strongest in the downstairs drawing room though; sometimes when she’s in there, she can hardly hear what anyone else is saying.  It’s really distracting, since she can’t hear the words properly so she catches herself straining to understand them before coming back to herself with a start as Miss Queenie snaps her fingers under Elizabeth’s nose to get her attention.  Some of the other girls can hear things in the drawing room too; Rachel Goldstein claims she can hear someone screaming, and Astrid Henley insists she can hear a frog.  Elizabeth catches a couple of other clairvoyants absentmindedly tapping their feet to the music no one else can hear, but it’s only once she finds Patsy Lennox, an empath, sobbing on the floor that they need to save someone named Misty that Elizabeth decides something has to be done about it.

She decides to ask Cordelia about it first, just to be sure.  The Headmistress is a kind woman, and very clever, but she can be fierce if any of the girls put themselves or each other in danger, and Elizabeth’s had enough spirits shouting at her to do irresponsible things to know that it’s a fair concern.  Cordelia’s clearly uncomfortable, but shortly tells her about Misty Day, the student who died there during the tests to find the next Supreme, and how much she loved Stevie Nicks.

‘Was she a good person?’ asks Elizabeth.

‘Oh yes,’ says Cordelia, and she looks so terribly sad that Elizabeth wants to go to her, to hold her, but touching Cordelia is unthinkable.  Like touching a masterpiece in a museum, something beautiful but roped-off and off-limits.  ‘Yes, she was a very good person.  Terribly kind, and very gentle.  It was a great loss.’  And then something closes off in her face, like a light going out in a house window.

Well, that does it then.  Maybe she can put it down for extra credit or something.

Elizabeth waits until Easter.  She’s read Misty Day’s file, it seems appropriate.  Her books say that Easter is for growing and birth and renewal.  There are two girls at the school who are able to do Vitalum Vitalis, and Mary has always had the power of resurgence.  Elizabeth recruits them with the help of Patsy, who everyone likes and feels protective of, and they agree to do it at sunrise on Easter Sunday.

They decide against playing “Seven Wonders”, so Elizabeth brings down her iPod dock and chooses the only Stevie Nicks song she has, “And the Days Go By” from the Practical Magic soundtrack, which everyone agrees is suitably witchy.

_You’ve left me now and it’s seasoned my soul  
And with every step you take I watch another part of you go_

They light white candles, to act as beacons, to guide her through the darkness.  They sing along with Stevie Nicks’ soulful, plaintive voice, calling across the abyss, calling down into Hell.  Calling their sister back from death, from shadow.  Calling her back to life.

Seated in a circle on the drawing room floor, hands joined, it becomes difficult to focus on anything but the magic.  Elizabeth feels as if a great chasm is opening up in front of them, like they’re all seated around a deep well that goes down, down into the echoing dark, with their voices coming back, ghostly and strange from the depths.  She faintly registers someone calling her name, someone shaking her shoulder, but she’s caught up in the spell now, the power heady and wild and strange, making her feel like she’s clinging to the mane of a wild horse.  She couldn’t stop it if she wanted to.

There’s an explosion of light, sending all the girls sprawling back, knocking over the candlesticks and sending Cordelia and Zoe sliding back across the floor.  Elizabeth's iPod dock goes clattering under the piano.  Dust and ashes surge up out of the carpet and coalesce into the shape of a pale young woman with long golden hair, screaming and screaming as if she will never stop, tearing at her hair and her face, sobbing so hard she can barely breathe.  Cordelia runs to her and shouts at Zoe to fetch Queenie, and they take her away.

It’s nearly a week before Misty Day emerges from her room, still pale and drawn, but strengthening quickly.  Cordelia has been feeding her potions, but she doesn’t really need them.  She was once burned at the stake and came back good as new, Elizabeth's heard.

Misty Day finds Elizabeth in the upstairs study, and Elizabeth is struck by how beautiful she is.  She still can’t speak very clearly, but she says in her hoarse, hesitant voice, ‘Thank you.  For saving me.’

‘It’s alright,’ says Elizabeth with a smile.  ‘I didn’t really do that much.  Just gave you a little push.’

It’s true.  Elizabeth’s read the girl’s file; all the was needed was someone to show her the way out, and she would come under her own steam.  Misty Day always did have a talent for bringing herself back from the dead.


End file.
